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Welcome to the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University!
 Wherever I go these days, people want to invest in education. When I begin talking about our School, they perk up. They ask many questions. Does it make sense for a school of education to focus on policy? Are we doing things differently? If so, what are we doing differently—and why.
To all these questions, I respond, "yes." And let me tell you why.
At our School we don't just study teachers and schools. We don't just teach teachers. We see education as needing to change in this country. Many folks will need to be involved in the way we conceptualize learning and where it takes place. Accordingly, we see our mission as broader and deeper than just focusing on teachings and schools.
We strive to understand and improve the learning of individuals across the lifespan as well as the learning of people in communities. We conceptualize communities as groups of people working together in social or technical environments that influence human development. Viewed in this way, learning environments include not only schools and classrooms but also workplace settings, families, neighborhoods and other societal arrangements in which learning takes place.
Through broad-based interdisciplinary inquiry—including research, teaching and outreach activities—our faculty work to better understand how social, psychological and economic factors shape human development and learning. We then use this knowledge to design pedagogical, technological and social policy innovations to improve human lives.
What makes our school of education unique is that we inquire into how learning and development take place throughout the life span and in many different settings. We recognize the power of lifelong learning to teach a child, run a business, make a law and bring a family together. Our mission, therefore, is nothing less than to change and improve people's lives and institutions through facilitating learning and development and to design interventions that do so.
If this mission appeals to you, we invite you to join our learning community.
Sincerely yours,
Penelope L. Peterson, Dean
p-peterson@northwestern.edu
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